In an interview with SportsKeeda (via Wrestling Inc), QT Marshall spoke about why he briefly left AEW late last year and confirmed that he spoke to WWE. Marshall is now back in AEW in a backstage-only role. Here are highlights:
On leaving AEW to wrestle more: “My biggest thing was I just didn’t want to sign a long-term contract, that’s it. But, because of that, I had to resign from the job itself…I couldn’t do one or the other, so it’s like ‘Hey, I’m going to resign. I have this idea to do Turnbuckle Wrestling with Teil [Rhodes]…I just have a lot of things I want to do. I just kind of want to relax. I’ve been on the road five years straight.’ I’ve never publicly stated stuff, but like…man I worked harder than most people at AEW. If that ruffles feathers, I don’t care. I did, I busted my butt for them in hopes that maybe it would lead to more in the ring maybe. But they’re two separate things, and when we spoke, Tony and I spoke about that, we both were on the same page of…a lot of people think I left because I wanted to become a big star. That’s not what it was at all.”
On talking with WWE & going back to AEW: “I mean, when I spoke to them, it was a three, four-minute conversation. And [Triple] H kind of just asked me what I wanted to do, and I told him what I liked to do, and we never even got past that point. I remember the guy that kind of linked me up with them was like ‘Wait, you’re already going back to AEW?’ I said ‘Yeah,’ because I understand what I want to do, and what I want to do, even if I was a full-time in-ring talent at WWE, I couldn’t do all this stuff. Of course, it’s everybody’s dream to main event WrestleMania, but at the end of the day, that takes a lot of work, a lot of passion, a lot of sacrifice, and so on and so forth. For the other stuff that I want to do, and what I have going on with the school and stuff, I just think this is the best fit for me, unless it’s something that comes along, and it’s the greatest opportunity, and I can’t say no. But ideally, I’m not in that position, so it’s not something I think about.”
